All praise belongs to God, who sent down the Book to His servant and made no crookedness in it.
Straight and upright, to warn of a severe punishment from Him and to give good news to the believers who do righteous deeds that they will have a fine reward.
Dwelling in it forever.
To warn those who say, "God has taken a son."
They have no knowledge of this, nor did their fathers. What a monstrous word coming out of their mouths! They speak nothing but lies.
Perhaps you will destroy yourself with grief over them if they do not believe in this message.
We made everything on earth an adornment for it, to test which of them is best in conduct.
We will turn everything on it into barren dust.
Or did you think that the Companions of the Cave and the Inscription were a wonder among Our signs?
When the young men took refuge in the cave and said, "Our Lord, grant us mercy from Yourself and guide us rightly through our ordeal."
So We sealed their ears in the cave for many years.
Then We raised them up to reveal which of the two groups could better calculate how long they had stayed.
We relate to you their story in truth. They were young men who believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance.
We strengthened their hearts when they stood up and declared, "Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. We will never call upon any god besides Him, for then we would have spoken an outrageous lie."
These people of ours have taken gods besides Him. Why do they not bring clear proof for them? Who is more unjust than one who fabricates lies against God?
Now that you have withdrawn from them and what they worship besides God, take refuge in the cave. Your Lord will spread His mercy over you and prepare for you ease in your affair.
You would see the sun, when it rose, inclining away from their cave to the right, and when it set, passing them by on the left, while they lay in an open space within it. That is among the signs of God. Whoever God guides is truly guided, and whoever He leaves astray, you will never find for him a guiding protector.
You would think them awake, though they were asleep. We turned them to the right and to the left, while their dog stretched out its forelegs at the entrance. Had you looked at them, you would have turned away from them in flight and been filled with terror of them.
So We awakened them that they might question one another. One of them asked, "How long have you stayed?" They said, "We have stayed a day or part of a day." They said, "Your Lord knows best how long you have stayed. Send one of you with this silver coin of yours to the city, and let him see which food is purest, and bring you provision from it. Let him be careful and not alert anyone to you."
If they discover you, they will stone you or force you back into their religion, and then you will never succeed.
So We made them known, that people might know that the promise of God is true and that the Hour is beyond doubt. When they disputed among themselves about their affair, they said, "Build a structure over them. Their Lord knows best about them." Those who prevailed in the matter said, "We will surely build a place of worship over them."
Some will say, "They were three, their dog being the fourth." Others will say, "They were five, their dog being the sixth," guessing at the unseen. Still others will say, "They were seven, and their dog was the eighth." Say, "My Lord knows best their number. None knows them except a few." So do not argue about them except with obvious facts, and do not ask any of them for an opinion about them.
Never say of anything, "I will do that tomorrow."
Unless you add, "If God wills." Remember your Lord when you forget, and say, "Perhaps my Lord will guide me to something nearer to right conduct than this."
They remained in their cave for three hundred years, and nine more.
Say, "God knows best how long they stayed. To Him belongs the unseen of the heavens and the earth. How perfectly He sees and hears! They have no protector besides Him, and He shares His authority with no one."
Recite what has been revealed to you from your Lord's Book. None can alter His words, and you will never find any refuge apart from Him.
Keep yourself patient with those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking His face. Do not let your eyes pass over them, desiring the adornments of this worldly life. Do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance, who follows his own desires, and whose affair has gone to excess.
Say, "The truth is from your Lord. Whoever wills, let him believe, and whoever wills, let him disbelieve." We have prepared for the wrongdoers a Fire whose walls will surround them. If they cry for relief, they will be relieved with water like molten metal that scalds their faces. What a wretched drink, and what a terrible resting place.
Those who believe and do righteous deeds, We never let the reward of anyone who does good go to waste.
For them are Gardens of Eternity, with rivers flowing beneath them. They will be adorned there with bracelets of gold and will wear green garments of fine silk and brocade, reclining on couches. What an excellent reward, and what a beautiful resting place.
Present to them the parable of two men: We gave one of them two gardens of grapevines, surrounded them with palm trees, and placed crops between them.
Both gardens yielded their produce and did not fall short in anything. We made a river flow through them.
He had abundant fruit, so he said to his companion while conversing with him, "I have more wealth than you and a mightier following."
He entered his garden while wronging himself. He said, "I do not think this will ever perish."
"I do not think the Hour will ever come. Even if I am returned to my Lord, I will surely find something better than this in exchange."
His companion said to him while conversing with him, "Do you deny the One who created you from dust, then from a drop of fluid, then shaped you into a man?"
"But as for me, He is God, my Lord, and I associate no one with my Lord."
"If only, when you entered your garden, you had said, 'What God wills! There is no power except through God.' Even if you see me as less than you in wealth and children."
"Perhaps my Lord will give me something better than your garden and send upon it a thunderbolt from the sky, leaving it a barren, slippery ground."
"Or its water will sink deep into the earth, and you will never be able to reach it."
His fruits were destroyed, and he began wringing his hands over what he had spent on it, while it lay collapsed on its trellises. He said, "If only I had not associated anyone with my Lord."
He had no group to help him against God, nor could he help himself.
There, all authority belongs to God, the True. He is best in reward and best in outcome.
Strike for them the parable of worldly life: it is like water We send down from the sky, and the plants of the earth absorb it, but then they become dry stubble scattered by the winds. God has power over all things.
Wealth and children are the adornment of worldly life, but lasting good deeds are better with your Lord in reward and better in hope.
On the Day We set the mountains in motion and you see the earth laid bare, We will gather them all, leaving not one behind.
They will be presented before your Lord in rows. "You have come to Us just as We created you the first time. Yet you claimed We would never set an appointed time for you."
The record will be laid open, and you will see the criminals terrified by what it contains. They will say, "Woe to us! What kind of record is this? It leaves out nothing small or large without counting it." They will find everything they did present before them, and your Lord wrongs no one.
When We said to the angels, "Bow down to Adam," they all bowed, except Iblis. He was of the jinn, and he rebelled against his Lord's command. Will you then take him and his offspring as allies instead of Me, when they are your enemy? What a wretched exchange for the wrongdoers.
I did not make them witnesses to the creation of the heavens and the earth, nor to the creation of themselves. I would never take those who lead astray as helpers.
On the Day He will say, "Call upon those partners you claimed," they will call them, but they will not respond. We will place between them a barrier of destruction.
The criminals will see the Fire and realize they are falling into it, finding no escape from it.
We have explained in this Quran every kind of example for people, yet the human being is the most argumentative of all creatures.
Nothing prevents people from believing when guidance comes to them and seeking their Lord's forgiveness, except that they demand the fate of earlier peoples to overtake them or the punishment to confront them face to face.
We send messengers only as bearers of good news and warners. Those who disbelieve argue with falsehood to defeat the truth, and they take My verses and the warnings given to them as a joke.
Who is more unjust than one who is reminded of his Lord's verses but turns away from them and forgets what his own hands have done? We have placed coverings over their hearts so they cannot understand it, and deafness in their ears. Even if you call them to guidance, they will never be guided.
Your Lord is the Forgiving, Full of Mercy. If He were to hold them accountable for what they have done, He would have hastened their punishment. But they have an appointed time from which they will find no refuge.
Those are the towns We destroyed when they did wrong, and We set an appointed time for their destruction.
Moses said to his young companion, "I will not stop until I reach the junction of the two seas, even if I travel for ages."
When they reached the junction between them, they forgot their fish, and it made its way into the sea through a tunnel.
When they had passed beyond, he said to his companion, "Bring us our meal. We have certainly met with exhaustion from this journey of ours."
He said, "Did you see when we took shelter by the rock? I forgot the fish, and nothing made me forget to mention it except Satan. It made its way into the sea in an amazing manner."
He said, "That is what we were seeking." So they retraced their footsteps.
They found a servant from among Our servants to whom We had given mercy from Us and taught knowledge from Our presence.
Moses said to him, "May I follow you so that you teach me from the right conduct you have been taught?"
He said, "You will never be able to have patience with me."
How can you be patient with what you have no knowledge of?
He said, "You will find me patient, God willing, and I will not disobey any command of yours."
He said, "If you follow me, do not ask me about anything until I mention it to you myself."
So they set out until, when they boarded a ship, he made a hole in it. He said, "Did you make a hole in it to drown its people? You have done a terrible thing!"
He said, "Did I not tell you that you would never be able to have patience with me?"
He said, "Do not hold me accountable for what I forgot, and do not burden me with difficulty in my affair."
So they set out until, when they met a boy, he killed him. He said, "Did you kill a pure soul who killed no one? You have done a horrible thing!"
He said, "Did I not tell you that you would never be able to have patience with me?"
He said, "If I ask you about anything after this, do not keep me as a companion. You have received enough excuse from me."
So they set out until, when they came to the people of a town, they asked its people for food, but they refused to host them. They found in it a wall about to collapse, so he restored it. He said, "If you wished, you could have taken payment for it."
He said, "This is the parting between me and you. I will inform you of the interpretation of what you could not bear with patience."
The ship belonged to poor people working at sea. I intended to damage it because there was a king behind them seizing every ship by force.
The boy's parents were believers, and we feared he would burden them with transgression and disbelief.
So we intended that their Lord would replace him with one better in purity and closer in compassion.
The wall belonged to two orphan boys in the city, and beneath it was a treasure for them. Their father had been righteous, so your Lord intended that they reach maturity and extract their treasure as a mercy from your Lord. I did not do it by my own command. That is the interpretation of what you could not bear with patience.
They ask you about Zul-Qarnain. Say, "I will recite to you a mention of him."
We established him firmly in the land and gave him a means to everything.
So he followed a way.
Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it setting in a murky spring, and he found near it a people. We said, "O Zul-Qarnain, either you punish them or you treat them with kindness."
He said, "Whoever does wrong, we will punish him, then he will be returned to his Lord, and He will punish him with a terrible punishment."
But whoever believes and does good, he will have the best reward, and we will speak to him an easy command from our affair.
Then he followed a way.
Until, when he reached the rising of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had not made any shelter from it.
So it was. We had full knowledge of all that he possessed.
Then he followed a way.
Until, when he reached between the two barriers, he found beyond them a people who could barely understand speech.
They said, "O Zul-Qarnain, Gog and Magog are spreading corruption in the land. Shall we pay you tribute so that you build a barrier between us and them?"
He said, "What my Lord has established me in is better. So help me with strength, and I will build between you and them a dam."
Bring me blocks of iron. Until, when he had leveled it between the two mountain sides, he said, "Blow." Until, when he had made it fire, he said, "Bring me molten copper to pour over it."
So they could not scale it, nor could they tunnel through it.
He said, "This is a mercy from my Lord. But when the promise of my Lord comes, He will level it to the ground. The promise of my Lord is true."
On that Day, We will leave them surging over one another, and the Horn will be blown, and We will gather them all together.
On that Day, We will display Hell to the disbelievers in full view.
Those whose eyes were veiled from My remembrance, and who could not bear to hear.
Do those who disbelieve think they can take My servants as protectors instead of Me? We have prepared Hell as a welcome for the disbelievers.
Say, "Shall We tell you who are the greatest losers in their deeds?"
Those whose efforts in this worldly life went astray while they thought they were doing good.
Those are the ones who rejected the verses of their Lord and the meeting with Him, so their deeds have come to nothing, and We will give them no weight on the Day of Resurrection.
That is their repayment: Hell, because they disbelieved and took My verses and My messengers as a joke.
Those who believe and do righteous deeds will have the Gardens of Paradise as a welcome.
They will dwell there forever, never wishing to leave.
Say, "If the sea were ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would run dry before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even if We brought another sea like it to replenish it."
Say, "I am only a human being like you. It has been revealed to me that your God is one God. So whoever hopes to meet his Lord, let him do righteous work and never associate anyone in the worship of his Lord."